Crosswalk Wish
by JustInunotaisho
Summary: Kyo is late to the dojo. That's funny. He's usually in time. It all depends on how you look at it, really. Kyo and Tohru and dang proud of it, thanks. Rating because I hate writing kid stuff.


A/N: I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction…if I did, Kyo would wear a leather jacket and ride a motorcycle. Just kidding. Anyway, the idea came from one of the Miko sisters and her friends.

Momiji's fault. Entirely Momiji's fault.

Kyo growled in frustration, running down the sidewalk toward the dojo. If that annoying Rabbit hadn't been bouncing off the walls when school got out, then he wouldn't be late for his lesson with Shishio.

A man and a woman watched him hurtle past, the woman nearly falling over as Kyo came close to slamming right into her. Breaths coming ragged and hurried, the Cat turned the corner and continued to sprint. Ignoring the honks from cars, he hurtled across an intersection while the crosswalk sign was still red. _Dammit! I've never been late before. Stupid rabbit!_

Momiji's face rose to his mind with the thought and Kyo imagined whacking him over the head a few thousand times.

With the vision came a faint recollection. As Kyo skidded to a halt, forced to stop at yet another crosswalk while the cars whizzed past, he remembered something the nuisance said while walking home from school the other day.

_"Look, Tohru!"_

_Momiji hopped from painted stripe to painted stripe across the crosswalk, avoiding contact with the black asphalt in between them. Laughing, Tohru followed suit, her brown hair flying behind her as she leaped._

_Yuki and Kyo followed in a normal fashion, the latter rolling his eyes. "What are you idiots up to?" he demanded._

_"It's a game!" Momiji smiled. "If you can cross and only touch the stripes of the crosswalk and not the road, you get a wish!" He paused and closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and continued on. "And it always comes true!"_

_"That's right, Kyo-kun," agreed Tohru._

_Kyo stared at her, slowly shaking his head. "Give me a break," he snorted._

As he glanced down at his watch and muttered a curse, Kyo shook his head. Unless he grew wings or changed his curse with Kureno or Rin, he wouldn't make it to the dojo on time. His crimson eyes flickered down to the stripes leading across the road. _I must be crazy._

The crosswalk signal glowed green. "Oh, hell with it." He jumped onto the first stripe, then stretched out his foot to the next, lengthening his strides to plant his feet squarely on each yellow line. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed the drivers of the cars waiting at the light shooting strange looks at this crazy teen hopscotching across the road. Kyo gritted his teeth and concentrated on the last few feet.

Reaching the other side at last, Kyo broke into a run once more. Closing his eyes while running was out, obviously, but...

_I wish to be in time,_ he prayed.

In retrospect, _on _time would have been more accurate, but still, as the dojo appeared ahead, half a block away, Kyo wondered if it really would work and looked down at his watch-

-and looked up to see a someone trip down the steps of the house right next to him. Automatically, his hands rose to catch them. "Whoa!"

"Ah! Oh, _gomen_!" cried a familiar voice.

Eyes widening, Kyo met the gaze of the girl whose shoulders he held. "Tohru?"

Tohru looked up at him and stopped trying to stand up. "Kyo-_kun_!" As always, her face lit up, unveiling the smile that tingled every blood vessel in his body.

"Uh, hi," he replied, letting go of her with some reluctance and glancing up at the house from which she came. "What are you doing around here at this time of day?"

"Oh, yes! One of our classmates forgot a book at school so I came to return it." She peered down the street in the direction of Kazuna's training hall. "Are you on your way to the dojo?"

Snorting, Kyo nodded. "Duh. It's Thursday." Then he groaned as he glanced at

his watch. "Ah, _crap!_ I'm late!" _So much for Momiji and his wishing trick._

"Oh, _gomen_!" apologized Tohru. "Well, do your best-"

He nodded and turned to go, but Tohru took another step and stumbled once more. After that followed a progression of the proverbial coin flipping from fortune to mishap.

Fortunately, he caught her again.

Unfortunately, it was while he was off balance and they both tumbled to the concrete.

Fortunately for Tohru, her fall was cushioned by Kyo.

Unfortunately for Kyo, he cushioned her fall.

Fortunately, only his elbow received the worst of the tumble. His yelp followed the impact as the rough surface gashed open the skin. _Could be worse, _he thought, then realized the soft breeze on his neck and the weight…the very _warm_ weight on his chest was a girl. _The _girl, in fact. Tohru.

…fortunately for Kyo, he cushioned her fall…

…and even more fortunately, she'd landed so her arms dug into his chest, preventing them from hugging and transforming…

"Ah! Um! _G-g-gomenesai_, K-kyo-_kun_," Tohru stuttered in his ear.

Unfortunately, across the street, an elderly man with spiky white hair cackled and shouted, "_Ne_, you two! Get a room!"

Glaring seven kinds of hell with extra leeks and liver over in his direction, Kyo managed to stand up and haul Tohru to her feet. "You all right?" he asked, trying to keep his voice even with the blazing blush on his face. "Why'd you fall again?"

"I-I don't know," she babbled, her face more roseate than usual-

_Dammit! Concentrate! _Kyo growled at himself. In an effort to cover his embarrassment, he brushed himself off. Something caught his eye. "Hey, Tohru, your shoelaces are tied together."

"Eh? Ah! That must be why I tripped."

Kyo tossed a suspicious look toward the house. _Hnh. I wonder if that classmate is part of the Prince Yuki fanclub._ He checked his elbow wound and found it wasn't bleeding that much. "You all right?" he asked again.

"Hai!" Tohru sat and began to untie the enormous tangle of laces. "You'd better hurry to the dojo. I'll see you at home, okay?" She looked up and beamed again.

Thoughts of that smile on lips that had been so close to his ear a few seconds ago drew even more heat to his face; he merely grunted an acknowledgment and, after a final nod, strode off toward the dojo.

Kunimitsu looked up as Kyo entered the dojo. "At last, the hero enters…must have been some girl…" he teased.

"_NANI_?!"

Wide-eyed, the secretary/karate student did a double take and flattened himself against the wall as Kyo stormed past. "_Yare-yare_, strike a nerve?" He cringed when Kyo shot a dirty look over his shoulder. "Hey, this must be a record: the first time you've been late to a lesson."

Kyo froze. Late? "What?"

_I wish to be in time._ That was what he had wished. He should have been more specific…

…but if he had been _on_ time, his collar would not be smelling of vanilla and blueberries and Tohru, his ear would not be tingling with the memory of soft breath, and that Damn-Rat-Prince-Yuki-fan would be snickering at Tohru's broken nose from the old tied shoelaces gag instead of an old man leering at-

"I said, it's the first time you weren't on time." Kunimitsu cocked his head, his eyes twinkling and lips smirking a bit.

"Says you," bit out the young man before disappearing into the training room, leaving a very confused secretary out in the hall.

A/N: Not my first Fruba fanfic but the first posted. Tell me what you think and I shall grow better.


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